




% 




■ 


M 


i & 

§. 










* 









*■ . <• >:• * %' 


*1 


1 * 1 ? 


'r* 


.*r > •:> 


* V,; 






■ aE«f - &£» 






v *S 














I 












* 
















*r. 


» 


1 


»• 




* 


































/ 








































































. 







































































4 4 


THE TALE OF TANTIUSQUES.” 


AN EARLY MINING VENTURE IN MASSACHUSETTS. 


BY 


GEORGE H. HAYNES. 

n 


/ 


From Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, at the 
Annual Meeting, October 30, 1901. 


WmtfiUx, 

PRESS OF CHARLES HAMILTON, 
311 MAIN STREET. 


1 9 0 2 . 





"THE TALE OF TANTIUSQUES.” 

AN EARLY MINING VENTURE IN MASSACHUSETTS. 


This paper presents some early chapters in the story of what 
is probably the oldest “living” mine within the United 
States. It became known to the whites in 1633, and has 
been worked intermittently for more than two centuries 
and a half. Very recently a company has been incorpo¬ 
rated which is now attempting to develop this ancient prop¬ 
erty by the methods of modern mining engineering. The 
mine is situated in the midst of a tract of land, still wild 
and desolate, in the southern part of Sturbridge, Worcester 
County, within about a mile of the Connecticut boundary 
line. 

Three years ago Mr. Robert C. Winthrop, Jr., of Bos¬ 
ton, presented to this Society a collection of manuscripts 
bearing the title “The Tale of Tantiusques.” The volume 
is notable alike for the interest of the documents which it 
contains and for the skill with which they have been edited and 
arranged for preservation. This admirable work was Mr. 
Winthrop’s generous response to the inquiries of our late 
associate, the Reverend Edward G. Porter, in regard to the 
existence among the unpublished Winthrop papers of any 
documents relating to the old mine, to which his attention 
had been directed by Mr. Levi B. Chase, a Sturbridge 
antiquarian of rare modesty, and of great enthusiasm and 
accuracy in research. These papers interested Mr. Porter 
greatly, and he was planning a detailed study of them when 
overtaken by his fatal illness. Although a native of Stur- 
bridffe and familiar from childhood with the scenes and 



4 


stories of this ancient mine, the writer feels like a tres¬ 
passer, as he enters upon the task which far abler hands had 
been on the point of undertaking. 

In granting the charter for the Massachusetts Bay Colony 
the attention of Charles I. was fixed not so much upon 
the trading privileges or the forms of government to be 
granted to his restive subjects, as upon possible sources of 
revenue for himself. 1 Arbitrary taxes the King had just 
renounced in the Petition of Right. 2 But he was 
resolved not to be dependent upon grants by Parliament. 
Accordingly, by far the most emphatic provision of the 
Charter, four times repeated in substantially the same 
words, was the insistence that the lands granted to the 
patentees should yield the King “the fifte parte of the oare 
of gould and silver which should, from tvme to tyme, and at 
all tymes then after, happen to be found, gotten, had, and 
obteyned in, att, or within any of the saide lands, lymytts, 
territories, and precincts,” etc.; for the King was here 
graciously granting to the patentees “all mynes and myn- 
eralls, aswell royall mynes of gould and silver as other 
mynes and myneralls whatsoever.” 3 

The early colonists shared the hope that El Dorado might 
be discovered in New England. Foremost of them all, 
both in his knowledge of the natural sciences, and in his 
zeal for developing all possible mineral resources of the new 
land, was John Winthrop, Jr., who had followed his 
father, Governor Winthrop, to Boston in 1631. 4 His mining 
enterprises were many, and claimed his attention through a 
long series of years. Among the first of his ventures came 
the salt works at Ryal-side, then a part of Salem ; these he 


* March 4, 1628-9. 

2 June 7,1628. 

3 Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New Eng¬ 
land, I., 3-19. 

4 Of the little-known but versatile career of John Winthrop, Jr., our associate 
Frederick John Kingsbury, has given an account in the Proceedings of this Society 
New Series, XII., pp. 295-306. See also a fuller account, by Thomas Franklin Waters' 
in the Publications of the Ipswich Historical Society, 1899. 



5 


had set up as early as 1638. 1 In 1641 2 the General Court 
had ordered : “ For the incuragment of such as will adven¬ 
ture for the discovery of mines, -- whosoever shalbee at 

the charge for the discovery of any mine w th in this jurisdiction 
shall cnioy the same, w th a tit portion of land to the same, for 
21 years to their P p use; & after that time expired, this 
Court shall have power to allot so much of the benefit thereof 
to publike use as they shall thinke equall.” It was in 
this same year that the younger Winthrop went to England ; 
upon his return, two years later, he brought over workmen, 
mining implements, and £1,000 for the establishing of iron 
works. Forthwith he petitioned the General Court for encour¬ 
agement to the undertakers of the enterprise, and even for the 
direct co-operation of the Court in furthering the work. In 
reply the Court expressed its cordia approval of this enter¬ 
prise as a “thing much conducing to the good of the country,” 
but a lack of funds in the treasury prevented the grant of any 
money. But to the group of individuals who joined in this 
venture the Court gave nearly everything for which they 
asked, viz. : “a monopoly of it for 21 years liberty to make 
use of any six places not already granted and to have three 
miles square in every place to them and their heirs, and 
freedom from public charges, trainings,” etc. Under 
such auspices iron works were started at Lynn and at 
Braintree, which for quite a time were prosecuted with con¬ 
siderable zeal and success. 3 In midsummer of 1644 the 
General Court granted Mr. Winthrop a plantation at or 
near Pequod for iron works. 4 Later in the same year the 
Court passed very encouraging resolutions, which took 
notice of the £1,000 having been “already disbursed,” 
and,—as if in further encouragement of the younger Win- 
throp’s enterprise,—there follows immediately this decree : 
“ Mr. John Winthrope, Iunior, is granted y e hill at Tan- 


1 Felt, History of Ipswich, p.73; F. M.Caulkins, History of New London, pp. 40,41. 

2 June 2,1641; Rec. of Mass. Col., I., 327. 

3 Boston Records, I., 68; Winthrop, II., p. 213., Savage’s note. 

4 June 28. 



tousq, about 60 miles westward, in which the black leade is, 
and liberty to purchase some land there of the Indians.” 1 

The existence of deposits of graphite in that region had 
been known early in the Colony’s history. In 1633, John 
Oldham, of interesting memory in connection with both the 
Plymouth and the Massachusetts Bay Colonies, made the 
trip overland to Connecticut, trading* with the Indians. 
He returned with a stock of hemp and beaver. He 
brought also “some black lead, whereof the Indians told 
him there was a whole rock.” 2 Such a discovery, men¬ 
tioned by Governor Winthrop, could not fail to arrest the 
attention of his son, eager for all mineralogical researches 

As a matter of fact the grant by the General Court seems 
merely to have given validity to what had already been 
gotten under way. Five weeks earlier, William Pynchon 
of Springfield had written to Stephen Daye, the first printer 
in the English-American Colonies, telling him of having 
commended him to the good graces of a certain Indian, with 
the assurance that the Governor was sending this man, 
Daye, “ to serch for something in the ground, not for black 
lead as they supposed but for some other mettel.” 3 But 
Daye’s prospecting tour in Winthrop’s interest was already 
begun, for on the very day on which this letter was written 
to him, he secured for Winthrop from Webucksham, the 
sachem of the region, “for and in consideration of sundry 
goods,” the grant of “ten miles round about the hills where 
the mine is thats called black lead.” Only two days before 
the Court’s grant, as if to make assurance doubly sure, Daye 
secured another deed of sale, or rather a confirmation, from 
Nodowahunt, the uncle of the sachem, who by this instru¬ 
ment surrendered whatever right he had “ in that place for 


1 Nov. 13, 1644. Mass. Rec. II., 82. 

2 History of New England, Winthrop, I., 80-111, n. 

s 4 Mass. Hist. Coll., VI., 377. He added that the black lead “by Quassink,” i. e. 
in the region of Tantiusques, was not so good as that which lay five or six miles 
further to the south. This latter deposit of graphite is located in a hill lying partly 
in Union and partly in Ashford, Conn.—Hammond-Lawson “History of Union ” 
p. 36. 



7 


Ten Miles.” As if in doubt whether these deeds would be 
binding, since they were secured before the action of the 
General Court, two months later, 1 Winthrop caused the whole 
transaction to be gone through again, with much greater 
formality in the observance of both Indian and English 
procedure. This time, in consideration of “Ten Belts of 
Wampampeeg with many Blankets & Cotes of Trucking 
Cloth and Sundry other Goods” there was granted to Win¬ 
throp “ All the Black Lead Mines and all other Places of 
Mines and Minerals with all the Lands in the Wilderness 
lying North and West, East and South Round the said Black 
Lead Hills for Ten Miles Each way only Reserving for 
my selfe and people Liberty of Fishing and Hunting and 
convenient Planting in the said Grounds and Ponds and 
Rivers.” This deed was signed by the mark of the sachem, 
of his son, and of live Indian witnesses and bv the names 
of five English witnesses. 2 

Two weeks from the day upon which the General Court 
made the grant, Winthrop signed a contract for the devel¬ 
oping and working of the mine, entrusting this task to a 
man named King, who had been one of Daye’s companions 
in prospecting and in negotiating the deeds with the In¬ 
dians. Winthrop was to advance £20 in trading cloths and 
wampum, in consideration of which King agreed to go up 
speedily to the black lead hill, with other men of his own 
hiring, there to dig the black lead, for which he was to 
“have after the rate of fourty shillings for every tunne to be 


1 The “20tli of the 11th Month, 1644.” 

2 Washcomo, the son mentioned above, acknowledged this instrument before 
Rich. Bellingham, Gov’r, 19 Dec. 1654. It was again confirmed by him March 1, 
1658-9, the description being: “All there right in the Blacklead hill at Tantiusques 
w th all the land round about the said hill for ten miles.” Washcomo adds : “ All that 
land aforesaid with the said Blacklead hill and all other places of Blacklead or 
other mines or minerals.” Another confirmation before five witnesses bears date of 
16 Nov. 1658, the consideration being “Ten Yards of Trucking Cloth,” which a dozen 
years later seems to have been worth about four shillings a yard. (See letter of 
Wait Winthrop to Fitz-John Winthrop, April 17,1671. 5 Mass. Hist. Coll., VIII., 386.) 
This last instrument was sworn to by the proprietor’s representative June 27, 1683. 

These five original documents are in the volume presented by Mr. Robert C. Win¬ 
throp, Jr., to this Society. They were all received by Edw* Pynchon, Regr, June 24, 
1752, and recorded in the registry at Springfield. See W. 1751-3. 



8 


paid him when he had digged up twenty Tunnes of good 
marchantable black lead and put it into an house safe from 
the Indians.” He was also to investigate another deposit 
of black lead, mentioned by the Indians, and if it should 
prove easier to work than at Tantiusque, he was to “notify 
the same to the said John Winthrop with all the speede he 
can.” 1 

During the following winter, on a journey from Boston 
to Saybrook, Winthrop came near visiting his new acquisi¬ 
tion. Having lost the trail to the Mohegan country in a 
snow storm, he passed the night in a deserted wigwam, 
probably within ten or twelve miles of the mine. His first 
intention was to visit it; the next morning, however, he 
was informed by friendly Indians that he had quite missed 
his way, and that he was heading toward Springfield, to 
which place he proceeded without further delay. 3 The 
severity of the winter would probably have made mining 
impossible ; but if King had been at Tantiusques at this 
time, certainly Winthrop would have made more effort 
to visit the mine. Although it remained in his possession 
thirty-two years, there is no evidence that he ever saw this 
property, from which he hoped so much. 

For a number of years the mine lay idle, although 
schemes for its development were often under discussion. 
A Dr. Robert Child, whom Winthrop had interested in 
several of his enterprises while last in England, writes to 
him, urging him not to lay out too much expense in expecta¬ 
tion of finding silver, of the presence of which graphite 
furnishes no evidence, as he shows by a detailed account 
of the occurrences of graphite in Europe; he adds 
shrewdly: “I am unwilling to beate you out of y r ^reat 
hopes ; nay I hope I shall not discourage you fro™ digging 
lustily about it, for the comodity, as I have tould you, 

1 This may refer to the Union-Ashford deposit, or to a less-known and inferior one 
about three miles north of the mine. The inference seems to be that it was not 
included in the Winthrop purchase. 

2 Wintlirop’s account of this journey, in abbreviated Latin, is printed in 2 Mass 
Hist. Soo. l'roc., VIII., 4-12. 



9 


wisely managed, will maintaine it selfe, hut pray let not 
out too much cost, till you have more certainty than as 
yet you have.” 1 Four years later Winthrop writes to 
Child that he has as yet done nothing about the mine, 
“because of the difficulty in the beginning. Except a 
plantation were neere, or a good stocke it can be well for- 
bourne a yeare or 2 w ch because of your departure I have not 
once minded to raise by other adventure.” 2 

These years of waiting were not a period of inactivity, 
for meantime Winthrop was petitioning the Connecticut 
authorities for the encouragement of “some search and 
tryall for mettalls in this Country,” citing the action which 
the Bay Colony had already taken. In response, the Court 
granted liberal monopoly privileges, in case “ the said John 
Winthrop Esq r shall discouer, sett vppon and meinteine, or 
cause to be found, discouered, set vppon and meinteined, 
such mynes of lead, copper or tinn, or any mineralls, as 
antimony, vitrial 1, black lead, allom, stone salt, salt springs, 
or any other the like, within this Jurisdiction, and shall sett 
vp any worke, for the digging, washing, melting, or any 
other operation about the said mynes or mineralls, as the 
nature thereof requireth.” 3 

In 1657 Winthrop contracted with a Saybrook man, 
named Matthew Griswold, to work the Tantiusques mine 
on shares; but it is doubtful if this was carried out. In 
the fall of the same year, however, he at last interested 
in the mine some Boston men of wealth and influence, one 
of whom was already concerned in the Lynn and Braintree 
iron works. 4 

In the following spring actual work began. The new 


1 5 Mass. Hist. Coll., I., 153-155. 

2 March 23,1G48-9. 5 Mass. Hist. Coll., VIII., 41. 

3 May 16,1651. Col. Rec. of Conn., 1636-1665, pp. 222, 223. 

4 This was William Paine. 4 Mass. Hist. Coll., VII., 402. The other, Capt. Thos. 
Clarke, is said to have been one of the richest merchants in Boston; as a reward for 
public service this very year, May 6, 1657, there had been granted him by the Gen¬ 
eral Court the land upon which was situated the black lead mines in what is now 
Ashford, the mineral from which Pynchon had declared was better than that from 
Tantiusques. Hammond-Lawson, “History of Union,” p. 36. 



10 


partners are eager to see prompt returns. From the first 
the problem of transportation was a puzzling one ; they 
importune Winthrop to “tack such a corce, as what is or 
shal be diged of it you wil spedyly git it to the water side.” 1 
They offer to assume Winthrop’s agreement with Gris¬ 
wold, since it is essential that all the lead be kept together. 
Again they suggest: “ ffor the caredge of the leade to the 
water side, Rich. Ffellowes is very willinge to ingage ; 
first, by goeinge a turne or two vpon tryall, & after to goe 
vpon more serten price ; wee conseiue hee is fited for horses, 
& shall leaue him to your selfe for conclution, which wee 
desior you wold hasten, conseiueinge it will doe best to 
tracke the way before the weades bee grone high.” 2 They 
made a conditional agreement with Fellows, but apparently 
Winthrop overruled it, for in May, Paine again writes to 
him : “ You ware plesed in youre last to giue vs to vnder- 
stand that you had mani carts promised you to fech the led, 
wich I hope, before thes com to hand you haue feched what 
there is ; but if you haue not alredy feched it away let them 
by al menes carie vp barils to put it vp and bring it in 
barils.” 3 

The mine was so remote that it was hard to get workmen 
to go up into the wilderness or to stay there. From time 
to time Winthrop is urged to send men, “ for they which 
are theare are weary of beinge theare,” but when at last one 
man came, under Winthrop’s direct employ, they could 
only report: “ his hoi work and study haue bin to mack 
trobel and hinder oure men.” 4 Called upon to act as 
peacemaker, Winthrop drew up a contract for a period of 
about two years between his partners and the two workmen ; 
they were to dig or raise “out of the Blacklead mine at 
Tantiusques the quantity of twenty tunnes yearly of wood 
marchantable black lead, or thirty tunnes yearly if the said 
quantities can there be raised by such labor and endeavor 

‘ 4 Mass. Hist. Coll., VII., 404. 

2 29tli 1 mo. 1658. 4 Mass. Hist. Coll., VII., 405. 3 /6icJ.,408. 11 May 1658 

4 4 Mass. Hist. Coll., VII., 409. 



11 


by fire & other meanes as are usual and necessary in such 
workes.” They were to transport this lead to some con¬ 
venient point on the Connecticut River between Windsor 
Falls and Hockanum, and were to receive as pay for each 
ton so delivered “ the full sume of Ten pounds in English 
goods or wheat & peas as they shall desire.” 1 

Meantime Winthrop’s mining had become well known at 
a distance. John Davenport of New Haven writes him a 
friendly letter, informing him of a report that had come to 
his ears that black lead was commanding such a high price 
in London that even its dust should not be cast away as 
useless. 2 

But mining at Tantiusques was a crude process, and 
returns upon the investment were slow in making their 
appearance. In September, 1658, five months after active 
operations were begun, Winthrop wrote to his son, then in 
London: “There is some black lead digged, but not so 
much as they expected, it being very difficult to gett out of 
y c rocks, w ch they are forced to breake with fires, their 
rocks being very hard, and not to be entered further than 
y e fire maketh way, so as y e charge hath beene so greate 
in digging of it that I am like to have no profit by y e 
same.” 3 

Months later the same difficulties are being experienced. 
Paine writes: “the diging of the surfe (surface?) haue 
bin verie chargable to vs, for want of a horce or catel to 
carie there wood, for thay can doe nothing but by firing, 
and the caring wood vpon there backs tack vp the gretest 
part of there time : therefore these are to desire you to help 


1 This document is signed by Winthrop in the presence of two witnesses, and he 
appends the pledge that in case Paine and Clarke do not assent to this agreement, 
the two men “shalbe paid for the tyme they spend about the pay they intend to gett 
& as 2 men shall judge fltt.” As the paper is not signed by Paine and Clarke, it is 
doubtful if it ever became of effect. 

2 Yet the price which he quotes “ 81 per tunn for lead in the bigger peeces,” is less 
than that promised to these workmen, and far less than that which was obtained 
in Jater years. 4 Mass. Hist. Coll., VII., 496. 

3 5 Mass. Hist. Coll., VIII., 50. 



12 


him to the horce .... or a paire of oxen ; but I 
think a horce vvil be best.” 1 

How long work was continued under this management 
and how great an output was secured, there is now no means 
of knowing. It is significant that the last extant reference 
to Tantiusques made by its first proprietor occurs in a letter 
from him to the Secretary of the Royal Society of London, 
which had been recently founded. Winthrop writes in 
terms of the highest appreciation of his privilege of mem¬ 
bership in this Society ; expresses regret that his earlier 
communications and collections, sent to the Society, had 
miscarried through the accidents of war; and gives a quite 
extended account of various mineral resources of North 
America, and of his experiments in making salt. After 
referring to some of his heavy pecuniary losses, resulting 
from the capture of vessels by the Dutch, he adds, “ evi¬ 
dently in allusion to Tantiusques,” 2 “ But who knowes 
the Issues of Divine Providence ! Possibly I might have 
buried more in an uncertaine mine (w ch I fancied more than 
salt) had not such accidents prevented.” 3 It is to be 
regretted that his grandson and many a later mining specu¬ 
lator could not have profited by this chastened experience. 

For the next half century interest in Tantiusques centres 
not in mining experiments, but in the descent of the prop¬ 
erty. When John Winthrop, Jr., died in 1676, the bulk 
of his landed estate was left to his two sons, who held it in 
common. For years the only mention of Tantiusques is 
found in two letters which refer to the preservation and 
recording of the Indian deeds. In 1707, upon the death of 
his brother, all of this landed estate came under the sole 
ownership of Wait Winthrop. Poor health and the weight 
of public cares prevented his engaging actively in the 
developing of the mine, but he was keenly alive to the 
importance of safeguarding his family’s interests. It 


1 4 Mass. Hist. Coll., VII., 410. 

2 Says Mr. Robert C. Winthrop, Jr. 

3 Nov, 12, 1668. 5 Mass. Hist. Col., VIII., 135. 



will be remembered that the General Court had granted 
Winthrop the hill containing the mine, “ and liberty to 
purchase some land there of the Indians,” and that the 
deeds had described the land purchased as “ lying . . 

round the said Black lead Hill for ten miles each way.” 
However a geometrician might interpret this description, 
the Winthrop heirs always contended that it denoted a 
tract “ten miles square, including the black lead hill.” In 
the middle of the seventeenth century so extensive a pur¬ 
chase probably attracted no attention, but seventy-five years 
later the General Court was making grants which threatened 
to trench upon the Winthrop domain. Accordingly, in 
1714, rehearsing the improvements which his father had 
made,—improvements now discontinued “ by reason of the 
long warr and trouble with the Indians,”—Wait Winthrop 
petitioned the General Court that a certain Capt. Jno. 
Chandler might be empowered to survey this tract “to be 
to your petitioner and his heirs, and the place may be of 
record, that any new grant may not be laid upon the same 
land.” 1 Some months later he intimates that although 
his father’s right to ten miles square was indisputable, he 
himself would be satisfied with six miles square. Yet the 
Court proved willing to grant him only four miles square. 
Although this was short of his proposal and “ but a small 
thing with respect to the contents of the purchase, which 
was ten miles every way from the mine,” yet Wait Win¬ 
throp declared that he was not unwilling to accept this as 
a settlement of the controversy, provided the boundaries 
could be laid out to his satisfaction. 

June 8, 1715, the Court ordered the making a survey of 
the tract; this order was carried out October 11 of the 
same year, by Capt. Chandler, accompanied by Mr. Win- 


1 June 25, 1714. 6 Mass. Hist. Coll., V., 294, 295. Wliat is apparently the un¬ 
finished draft of another petition on the same subject, supposed by the editors 
to have been written in August, 1714, is to be found on pp. 297-299 of the same vol¬ 
ume. But reference is obviously made in it to the survey of October 11,1715, which 
would point to a later date. 



14 


throp’s son, John, who was directed by his father to make 
careful inquiry, in order to locate the most valuable land ot 
the region within the tract. Their method of procedure is 
best presented in the words of a later statement and peti¬ 
tion which Winthrop sent to the Court: They had hoped 
to take as one boundary either the Colony line or else the 
Quinebaug River, “ but upon their view they found nothing 
between the mine and the river as also between the mine & 
the Collony line nothing but mountains & rox not improu- 
able and scarce worth anything; wherupon they layd it 
out in a sort of triangular square, that thay might take in 
som good land with a great deale of bad, and thought as 
long as it took no more than the quantity of fowr miles 
square, it might answare the intention, it being all within 
the said purchase and granted to nobody else, .... 
but the House of Representatives were pleased not to be 
satisfied with it inasmuch as it was not laid in a square.” 1 
Winthrop was doubtless right in inferring that it was the 
influence of the Springfield representatives that blocked 
his scheme, for these men held that the tract, so plotted, 
would overlap the three mile strip which they were urging 
the Court to add to the new plantation of Brimfield. 

Wait Winthrop was much discouraged by the rejection 
of this survey. He writes to his son, expressing the fear 
that the whole grant may be lost, and urging the speedy 
making of a new survey “ that may be square and take in 
the mine and as much of the best land as it will ” ; he thinks 
“ two or three days at Tantiusques would finish a new plat, 
now you know where the best land is.” 2 A year later he 
is still ill at ease about the matter: “ Our Gen 11 Court sits 

in a few days : I would fain do something about the Tanti- 
usque land before I leaue this place, or we shall lose it 
all.” 3 Less than a month after writing thus to his son, 
Wait Winthrop died. 4 

1 June 25,1714. 6 Mass. Hist. Coll., 299. 

2 Boston 8br 1st., 1716. 6 Mass. Hist. Coll., V., 327, 328. 

3 1 bid., p. 352. Oct. 22, 1717. 

* Nov. 17,1717. 



15 


A score of years had passed before the bounds of the 
Winthrop grant were adjusted. At the State House is a 
map, bearing the signature of John Chandler and of two 
others and headed by the inscription: “Pursuant to an 
Order of the Generali Assembly of the 7 th day of June, 
1728, we have Reformed the Survey of 10240 Acres of 
Land at Tantiusque or the Black led mines being the Con¬ 
tents of four mile Square, belonging to the Heirs of the 
Late Hon ble Major Gen 11 Winthrop Dec d And have laid it 

out in a Square figure.as We Judge is a full 

Equivalent for his former Survey.” The new survey took 
the Colony line as its southern boundary. Brimfield New 
Grant overlapped the Winthrop territory at the west by a 
strip a mile and a half wide. 1 

1 Maps of Tantiusques. 

At least six maps of the Tantiusques region are extant, four of them being pre¬ 
served among the documents presented to this Society; the others are at the State 
House. They are as follows: 

I. The Map for which Jno. Chandler made the survey, Oct. 11,1715, in accordance 

with the order of the Court of June 8. Scale: 100 perch to an inch. Signed 
by the surveyor. 

II. A Map of identical dimensions with the preceding, and dated “ Octob r 11*,” 

the year having been carefully erased. “This Map,” says Mr. It. C. Win¬ 
throp, Jr., “ is altogether in the handwriting of John Winthrop, F.R. S.”. 
It is signed “ pr J. C. Jum Surveyor.” Its entries differ in many interesting 
particulars from Chandler’s chart. 

III. “ A True Copy of The Map & Survey, According To the Minutes thereof in My 

hands by whome it was at first Surveyed.” 

Woodstock, Nov 13* 1723. 

IV. The Map of 1728, described above, by which Chandler and two others “ laid it 

out in a Square figure.” 

V. “This plan of Tantiusques or the Black-Lead-Mines belonging to John Win¬ 

throp Esq. contains 6802 2-3 Acres lying in the Centre of a fine Inhabitted 
Country in the Brovince of the Massachusetts Bay in New England.” It has 
neither date nor signature. It looks as if made by a wall-paper designer, 
rather than by a surveyor; well-drawn and tastefully colored trees are 
artistically scattered over the oblong tract. At the mine are pictured three 
houses on the left and two on the right of the road from Woodstock to 
Brimfield. The “ Explanation ” contains 14 numbers, five of them referring 
to the highly conventionalized villages which bound the tract; each has a 
meeting-house, and from four to eleven houses. 

The reduction in the area of the tract from 10,240 to 6803 2-3 acres 
indicates an adjustment with the Lechmeres of the disputed title. 

VI. (Without Date or Signature.) Endorsement: “a rof draft of the 21 milsquar 

trackt of land Comenly Cal’d and known by the name of Tanteasques be¬ 
longing to John Winthrop Esq.” 

This is an extremely crude piece of work, yet some of the entries, particularly 
the mention of the meeting house and of the name “ Storbridge ” would indicate 
that it was prepared for John Winthrop, “ F.R.S.,” and not earlier than 1735. 

It bears the following “ Not.”: “ the pricked lins according to the best informa- 

2 




Although—or because—one of the leading lawyers of 
his day, Wait Winthrop left no will. In consequence there 
arose over the settlement of his estate a prolonged legal 
controversy between his son, John Winthrop, and his son- 
in-law, Thomas Leehmere. Our only concern at present 
is to note that this Tantiusques tract containing the black 
lead mine formed a considerable part of the estate the 
Connecticut portion of which was at issue in Leehmere v. 
Winthrop , a leading case in the law of inheritance. 1 Be¬ 
lieving himself wronged by the decision of the colonial 
courts which required the division of the real estate among 
the heirs instead of its retention by the eldest son alone, in 
1726 John Winthrop sailed for England, to seek redress 
from the Privy Council. This was finally accorded him, 
though only after several years of costly litigation. 2 


tion I have is to sew you part of the town Bounderis as is setled within your 21 mile 
Right.” Yet none of the Winthrop petitions ever seems to have advanced a claim 
to a tract twenty-one miles square. 

An Index explains the chief points of interest. These are some of the entries: 

1. is the pond at the min. 

2. is y e black lead heel. 

3. is owr lious be twin ye min & pond. 

4. is the bruk and fall that corns out of y® pond maks quenebogg River. 

8. is fullers black lead min 9 mils diste South from us. 

9. is part of the town of Starford caP ye Iron workes. 

15. is new matfield or as its now Cald Storbridge 4 1-2 mils dist- y® meetting 
lious. 

'The Tantiusques tract, together with all the other portions of the estate lying in 
Massachusetts, was distributed according to the laws of that colony regulating 
intestate estates, two-tliirds going to the son, one-third to the daughter. 

2 The following account of this John Winthrop,—necessary for the understanding 
of the later story of Tantiusques,—is taken almost verbatim from the Introduction 
contributed by Mr. Robert C. Winthrop, Jr., to the volume of manuscripts. 

John Winthrop was born in 1681, and was graduated from Harvard in 1700. 
Seven years later he was married to Anne, daughter of Gov. Joseph Dudley. “ In 1711 
he removed from Boston to New London, in order to superintend and develop the 
family property in that neighborhood, a task for which lie was little suited, owing 
to unbusinesslike habits, irritable temper and a tendency to live beyond his means. 
During a residence of fifteen years in Connecticut, he managed, with the best inten¬ 
tions, to embroil himself not merely with the Courts and Legislature of the Colony, 
but also with many private individuals, who, as he claimed, had trespassed on his 
lands.” Winthrop knew that he was thoroughly unpopular in Connecticut, espe¬ 
cially after his appeal to the Privy Council had resulted in the setting aside of the 
decision of the Colonial Courts. London life proved more congenial. Accordingly, 
while his wife remained in New London, Connecticut, to bring up his small children 
and manage his estates, settling controversies and trying to meet his requests for 
remittances, on one pretext or another John Winthrop prolonged his stay in London 
for twenty-one years, until his death in 1747. 



17 


John Winthrop had early developed tastes for literary 
and scientific studies. In London there were abundant 
opportunities for the cultivation of such tastes; he formed 
an interesting circle of acquaintances, and in 1734 was 
elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, from which it 
happens that he is habitually styled John Winthrop, “ F. 
R. S.” So valued a member did he soon become that in 
1741 the fortieth volume of its Transactions was dedicated 
to him in a long and highly appreciative tribute. 

Winthrop entertained wildly exaggerated notions of the 
mineral wealth to be found upon his estates, and his 
grandfather’s lack of success could not dissuade him from 
entering upon the most ambitious schemes for the develop¬ 
ment of his properties. His optimism as a mining specu¬ 
lator was invincible. He was probably the first of the 
Winthrops who had actually visited Tantiusques, for it was 
he who, at the age of 34, had accompanied Capt. John 
Chandler, when he “ layd it out in a sort of triangular 
square.” A second map of this same survey is preserved, 
a map which Mr. Robert C. Winthrop, Jr., asserts is 
“ wholly in the handwriting of John Winthrop, F. R. S.” 
It is signed “ J. C. Jun r Surveyor,” and dated “ Octob r y c 
11th—,”—the year being carefully erased. The boun¬ 
dary points have obviously been pricked through this 
paper, and its dimensions are identical with those of Chand¬ 
ler’s map. Yet it differs in some interesting particulars. 
The Woodstock surveyor took pains to designate the char¬ 
acter of the soil in various parts of the tract; Winthrop’s 
map not only reproduces most of these data, but it is 
further embellished with such entries as the following: 

Rare fishing in this Pond. 

Rich Lead Oar. 

A place of good copper Oar. 

Iron Mines. 

Here is a Heavy Black Stone w ch is Rich in Tinn & D na . 

On this side of the Hill is small Veins of pure Silver. 


18 


Granates Mountain and a fine sort of Greaish Stone 
contain 1 © 

And all this in a tract of a few thousand acres within 
twenty-five miles of this spot! It would be interesting to 
know beneath whose eyes it was Winthrop’s intention that 
this map should pass. It is not without significance that 
everyone of these remarkable entries—not one of which 
appears upon Chandler’s map,—is written in an ink entirely 
different from that of the map, and of its other notes. 

Winthrop’s first move in entering upon his project was to 
secure information as to the market for graphite upon the 
Continent. For this purpose he employed a crotchety ex- 
sea-captain, named John Morke, who represented himself 
to be a Swedish engineer, and who had previously served 
Winthrop and the Duke of Hamilton in some of their joint 
business transactions. His first report, from Rotterdam, 
was “ what Incoregesment I meet with hear is about as good 
as all the rest and verry Endefrant is the best either to 
despose of a quantity and small prise.” 2 Three weeks 
later he writes : “ What I have Engaged for allready with 
what its likely to Increase I believe will amount to about 
one hundred and fifty Tun of black Lead yearly to Sopply 
France and Holland, and at a good price, above £100 
p 1 ; Tun ; and I find very Considerable Encouragement for 
your other Mines as Tin &c., and hope you will fix on our 
Speedy proceeding at my return that I may as Soon as 
pasable Sett out for america.” 3 From later developments 
it seems highly improbable that Morke had in reality con¬ 
tracted for the sale of a single ton of black lead, and the 
price which he here quotes is at least five times as high as 
that quoted to Winthrop three years later by a Hamburg 
commission merchant who was in position to know whereof 
he spoke. It was upon such misinformation as this that 
Winthrop’s schemes were based. 

1 Dna (Diana) or the crescent, and the circle, Dr. Edward Everett Hale reminds me, 
were the alchemistic symbols for silver and gold , respectively. 

2 Oct. 5, 1736. 3 Oct. 25,1736. 



19 


In August of the following year Winthrop engaged Morke 
to act as his steward at the mine. On the following day he 
entered into a contract with a young London merchant, 
named Samuel Sparrow, by virtue of which he (Sparrow) 
was to transport and bring the black lead from the mine 
and land of Tantiusques, and within six years was to pay to 
Winthrop seven-eighths of the net produce of the sale of 
500 tons, retaining the other one-eighth “ in Barr of all 
Comission whatever for my whole care and service,” and* 
also, apparently, in compensation for an advance of £1000 
towards the furthering of the enterprise. Winthrop, on 
his part, in consideration of Sparrow’s advances and man¬ 
agement, pledged himself to deliver to Sparrow for sale 500 
tons of black lead within Hx years. An advance of money 
on similar terms Was also made by one Jeremiah Hunt, a 
London Doctor of Divinity. 

The very next day Sparrow and Morke set sail for 
America; they arrived in New London after a stormy pas¬ 
sage of nine weeks. Their coming and their errand proved 
an unpleasant surprise to Madame Winthrop, a woman of 
sound sense and business capacity, who from the first had 
little confidence in this mining venture. Without delay 
they went to the mine. There the difficulties in their way 
began to appear. The old workings were covered with 
rubbish and water, in some places fourteen feet deep. The 
ore, though of good quality, lay deep in small veins, in very 
hard rock. Transportation charges were enormous : it cost 
them £13. 10s. to get their two cart-loads of tools and goods 
taken to Woodstock, and there, ten miles from their goal, 
they had to store them for the winter, as no cart-way could 
be found over Breakneck Hill. The Winthrop family 
showed little inclination to advance money or to co-operate 
with them, and the goods which Sparrow had brought found 
but a slow market. 

Life at the mine was far from luxurious. Morke presently 
wrote to Madam Hyde,—Winthrop’s cousin, and the keeper 


20 


of his house in London,—asking her to “ halp me to a 
Small repair of a fue nececaris as I havin ben so constancy 
tearing and haking my Smal Stok out, as Shoos, huts, and 
my rof traveling things to repare the which a Smal pees of 
Cours or Strong Check lining—Some whit, for myself 
and my folk, eithe of Som Cheep Irish lining or others— 
a pr. or 2 of good second hand blankits, a Sett of Copping 
Glasses and the tuls—and a good Secon hand Bible, large 
print with y e pokrefy in it.” (Apocrypha !) He sends also 
for some dress goods for his wife, “ if ther should be more 
Corn in Egept to spare,” and adds : “if you tak the trubl 
to lett Honnist Thomas bespeek my Shoos, of Mr. Dicks by 
turn still I know he’ll mak them strong My Sise is one Sise 
beger then M r Sparows. and somthing wider over the tooes 
by resen of Corns if a pare or two to be for my wif and 
Daufter say wif sise is ner your and my daufters a sis beger 
but requers to be strong for boston streets is verry Ruff.” 
He ends his postscript with the further request: “be so 
good to send me also a lettel strong strip Cuton and lining 
to mak me west Cots trousers of to work in the heat or 
mins withall for them and my Stokings and Cours things 
is all most gon to pot.” 1 

The mine was located in a wilderness about which settle¬ 
ments were only just beginning, and the settlers had their 
grievances against Winthrop, and were not over-friendly in 
their dealings with his workmen. Especially in Brimfield 
were there turbulent elements, ever ready to take a hand in 
disturbances that would trouble Winthrop. But occasions 
of discord were not wanting nearer home; ihe respective 
responsibilities of Sparrow and Morke were ill defined, and 
this gave rise to not a little friction between them. Even 
after Sparrow had returned to England with the first con¬ 
signment of black lead, Morke was still keeping things in a 
turmoil. Winthrop’s eighfeen-ycar-old son went up to the 
mine on a visit, and promptly sent word to his mother: 


1 Oct. 25, 1738. 



21 


“At my arrival Contrary to my Expectation I meet with 
verry Cold Treatment from Cap 1 Morke, and after many hot 
words passing between us he Told me it was his house and 
that I had no buisness their to act any Thing but imme¬ 
diately under him—the Same Day I Came he went to Brim- 
field in a great Passion, where he had got a Club of 
Irishmen who are his advisers and went to y e Justice of y e 
Peace and Shoed his Power from my father and Indeavr d 
to get false witnesses to bring an action against M 1 Wright 
for Defaming of him.” The stores were running low : “as 
for y e Rum their is about three gallons Left and no 
more and two of molases and halfe a barril of Porke.” 
Young Winthrop thought it would be best to remove what 
lead had been dug—about eight hundred weight—to the 
house of a neighbor, where one of the workmen might live 
until further orders, going to the mine “Three times in a 
weeke to See how he (Morke) Carries on.” He adds : “ and 
as for my Part I would not live in y c manner I do might I 
have a million of money, for Their is not an our in y ti Day 
but their is hot words.” 1 

But it soon became evident that “ a million of money” 
was not likely to be forthcoming. Sparrow had already 
returned to England, taking with him about a ton and three 
quarters of black lead. This, he sent word to America, 
proved to be not up to the quality of the English black 
lead, and the highest price he could secure was 4d. a 
pound. 2 Yet Winthrop seems to have been carried away 
by the actual arrival of graphite from his mine ; he is also 
apparently suspicious of Sparrow. Only a fortnight after 
Sparrow made his discouraging report, Winthrop wrote 
to Morke : “ The Black Lead you have Dugg and Sent over 
proves Extraordinary, and is certainly the Best that is 
known in the World, it is admired by all Disinterested and 
Undcsigneing persons, tho there is some people that have 
private Views wou’d seem to slight and Undervalue it. But 


t Dec. 11, 1738. 2 Feb. 6, 1738-9. 



22 


I doe assure you it containes a Fifth part Silver, but this 
you must keep as a secret and not talke to any body about 
it further then it is to make pencills to marke dovvne the 
Sins of the People.” He then urges his steward to build a 
large storehouse: to fence in about a mile square at the 
mine; to turn aside the bridle-path, that their work may 
be more private. He assures him that he shall have a stock 
of milch cows and breeding swine, and reminds him: 
“ what ever you meet with that is Uncommon or that looks 
like a Rarety or Curiosity, Remember that you are to 
preserve it for me.” He bids Morke disregard all “Tittle 
Tattle w ch is always Hatchet in Hell, with Designes to 
disturbe & prevent all good Undertakeings.” This extraor¬ 
dinary letter closes with the statement: “Mr. Agate was 
with me this Morning and is pleased to See a peice of the 
Black Lead you sent over, and says he sells that w ch dos not 
look so well for Sixteen shillings a pound.” 1 This letter 
with address and signature torn off is among these Winthrop 
documents. It is unmistakably in the handwriting of John 
Winthrop, F. R. S. Possibly before he had opportunity 
to send it, his bubble of hope was pricked by a letter from 
a commission merchant in Hamburg, of whom he had made 
inquiry, and who within less than a week of the writing of 
the above letter makes timely report that in Germany the 
maximum price for black lead is sixteen shillings not for one 
pound, but for one hundred pounds. The letter is addressed 
to a common friend; he adds: “if Mr. Winthrop has a 
mine of it he had best keep that a Secrett & not send above 
Twenty Tons of it at a tyme for fear of runing dovvne y® 
price.” 2 Just a month later the same merchant writes: 
“ I have now your favour of y c 4 Inst, by w ch See the black 
lead is at a great price w 1 ^ you, So that much of it wou’d 
not readily Sell here,if of y c finest Sort a Litle of it may be 
put of.” 3 To Winthrop he writes directly: “the black 


‘Feb. 20, 1738-9. 

2 Feb. 24, 1739, Hamburg. W. Burrowes to Capt W® Walker at the house of Jolm 
Winthrop, London. 3 March 24,1739. 



23. 


Lead is too Dear to Send much of it here, you may Send 
about 100 lb of it for a tryall in a Smale Caske & I’ll 
Endeavor to Serve you therein.” 

Meantime Sparrow’s faith in the mine had undergone a 
severe strain; but, resolved to make a final trial, he came 
to America again in the summer of 1740. In the course of 
the next ten months he succeeded in getting out less than a 
ton- of graphite, and in convincing himself that it would be 
folly to continue working the mine longer. Yet it was 
months after he had heard that Sparrow had abandoned this 
forlorn hope that Winthrop read the following statement 
before the Royal Society : 


“ One hundred Ounces of 
Ore out of the Mine of Potosi 
in Peru (w ch is six pounds 
and one Quarter) yields one 
Ounce and a half of Silver 
w ch is less than five penny 
Weight out of a pound of the 
Ore.” 


“Mr. Winthrop’s black 
Ore at Tantiusques, out of 
one hundred Ounces of Ore 
(w ch is as above six pounds 
and one quarter) yields Three 
Ounces and fifteen penny 
Weight of silver, w ch is 
Twelve penny Weight out of 
a pound of the Ore.” * 


This is in Winthrop’s own handwriting, and bears his 
endorsement: “ Jan. 7, 1741, read at y e Royal Society.” 1 

Whatever faith Winthrop placed in his own statement must 
have been rudely dispelled a few months later by the report 
made to him by a London assayer, who writes : 

“ I have tried your Samples of Ores, but none of them 
are of any Value except the Black Lead. 

“ That which you call a Silver Ore is almost all Iron, nor 
can any other metal be got from it that will pay the charge 
of refining; and this you may be Satisfied in, by Calcining 
a piece of that Ore, then Pound it, and the Loadstone will 
take it all up; which is full conviction. 

1 Although thus authenticated, the presentation of this statement is not men¬ 
tioned in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. 




24 


“ That which you called a Tin Ore holds no proportion of 
Metal that is sufficient to defray the expense of refining. 

“The Black Lead Silver Ore holds about one Ninetenth 
part, but it is very hard to Seperate ; and I reckon that the 
value of the Black Lead lost in the operation is more than 
the value of the Silver.” 1 

As to the occurrence of silver, modern investigation is 
more positive. The president of the company which is 
now developing the property declares: “I have never 
discovered any silver in the Sturbridge Graphite mine.” 2 
The former superintendent, a mining engineer of scien¬ 
tific training, says that he never saw any trace of silver¬ 
bearing graphite ore in that vicinity, nor had he found any 
galena; pyrites, carrying some silver, he had seen, but in 
very inappreciable quantities. 3 

More than half of the volume, “ The Tale of Tantiusques” 
is taken up with letters and legal documents bearing upon 
controversies arising out of Winthrop’s contracts with Morke 
and with Sparrow. They afford but inadequate material 
for getting at the real merits of the question ; the difficulty 
is not ^merely that we have but one side of the correspond¬ 
ence : there never was any other side, for Winthrop’s policy, 
like that of Talleyrand, was: “Never write a letter; 
never destroy one.” Just as soon as his suspicion was 
aroused or as he scented trouble with a business associate, 
his letter-writing to that man was at an end, no matter how 
pathetic or how importunate the appeals for an explanation 
or an adjustment of the difficulty. 

Morke had returned to London in February, 1741, and 
straightway began urging a settlement of his claims. As 
Winthrop ignored his every letter, he turned his attention to 
Madam Hyde, hoping through her to influence her cousin. 

1 1742, Oct. 27. Letter of William Thinn to John Winthrop. Repeated inquiries 
at the end of the letter for the name and address of the man who had been at the 
mine and secured this ore may have aroused Winthrop’s suspicions that the report 
was not trustworthy. 

2 Letters of Edgar S. Hill, Esq., Oct. 10,1901; March 19,1902. 

3 Mr. Mortimer A. Sears, Oct. 7,1901. 



25 


His style was not lacking in vigor and picturesqueness; his 
“ rash expretions ” in one letter gave particular offence, for 
there he ventured to say : “ If I had not a New England 

Colledge Education, I have an Honist, Christian, Usefull 
one. ... if I was not the fagg End of y e old Honourable 
John Winthrop, Esq r , I ame of the Honourable & most 
faimus Lord Tyge Brath (Tycho Brahe !) : and all this adds 
nothing, not eaven one Singall Ench to my hoyght.” 1 His 
mood is in constant change; now he pleads for an amicable 
settlement for the sake of his destitute wife and child; now 
he protests his loyalty to Mr. Winthrop, and his ability to 
do him the utmost service; but now, on the other hand, 
his words take the tone of the most arrant blackmailer; 
he threatens to expose Winthrop’s secrets to his creditors, 
taunts him with living in the best-guarded house in London, 
and with not daring to be seen in the street, and threatens 
to have him hauled out of his own bed by the constable, 
unless he settles his account. So the letters run for nearly 
four years until the controversy was finally brought up in 
court, and, as Winthrop expressed it, in writing to his son, 
Morke was “ cast.” 

Meantime Sparrow, too, at first very courteously, but 
later with great persistence, had been demanding a settle¬ 
ment. Presently suit was brought against Winthrop in 
New London both by Sparrow and by Madam Hunt, the 
widow of the London Doctor of Divinity who had advanced 
money for the Tantiusques venture. Sparrow claimed that 
he was entitled to one-eighth of the net produce of the 
sale of 500 tons of black lead, since by his contract he was 
bound only to transport and sell the lead, which Winthrop 
by his contract was bound to deliver to him. Winthrop’s 
contention, on the other hand, was that he was under no 
obligation to deliver the lead except as it lay in the moun¬ 
tain, and that by verbal agreement it was explicitly stipu¬ 
lated that Sparrow was to do the digging. Madam Hyde, 


1 Oct. 19, 1741. 



26 


a witness to the contract, deposed that when Sparrow and 
his associate brought the form of contract, Winthrop called 
attention to the omission of that stipulation, and consented 
to sign only after they had freely acknowledged the right¬ 
fulness of his contention ; that they insisted that the omis¬ 
sion was an inadvertence due to forgetfulness, and urged 
that the preparation of other papers would necessitate 
undesirable delay ; and that they assured Mr. Winthrop 
that no advantage would ever be taken of him by reason of 
the omission. Sparrow denied the recollection of any 
pledges of the kind mentioned. The issue between the 
two it is now impossible to determine. The contract was 
certainly loosely drawn. Whether Sparrow was a party 
to artifice in securing for himself from the very beginning 
this loop-hole, or not, disappointment in the enterprise 
induced him in the end to avail himself of this technicality 
in the hope of making good some of his losses. He claimed 
with entire truth, however, that he had been led into the 
enterprise upon Winthrop’s repeated assurances that the 
mineral contained one fifth part silver. That Winthrop 
made this assertion his own writing proves. Sparrow went 
further, and in a letter to Winthrop’s wife—whose confidence 
and cordial regard Sparrow retained long after his relations 
with her husband had become painfully strained—declared : 
“ He (Winthrop) shew’cl to me an experement with another 
Mineral (of which he has 1000 Tons upon his Estate) from 
which he extracted a good deel of silver, and I may ven¬ 
ture to say he is still the richest Man in all the Collonies 
if that experement was not made to deceive but true and 
fair.” 1 Morke is apparently hinting at this same transac¬ 
tion when he writes to Winthrop: “ I can sew you some 
of the lead you or Mistris hyde geve me the mony to pur- 
chis in Shoolan a peace of which I Saw’d in Sunder one of 
which was for a patren given to Mr. Sparow and Comperd 
it to Myne at the Mins.” 3 It is to be remembered, of 


1 September 24,1745. 2 September 1,1744. 



27 


course, that at the time these charges were made both 
Morke and Sparrow were in controversy with Winthrop, 
and hence had some motive for trumping up charges against 
him. Yet the accusation is not made to influence the opin¬ 
ion of others, but is found in private letters to Winthrop 
and to his wife. After all, the man who could locate upon 
his map of Tantiusques not only black lead, but iron, lead, 
copper, tin, silver and gold as well, would have been 
strangely lacking in ingenuity if he could not have pro¬ 
vided the samples of ore for which the map called. 

These prolonged controversies had an injurious effect 
upon Mr. Winthrop’s health ; he died in London, August 
l, 1747. The suits were soon renewed against his widow, 
but in February, 1748-9, decision in both cases was given 
in her favor, and costs were awarded to her. 1 According 
to the record an appeal was taken in both cases, but efforts 
to trace later proceedings have proved without result. 

For many years “ y e hill at Tantousq, in which the black 
leade is,” still remained in the possession of the Winthrop 
family, but there is no record of their having made further 
attempts to develop the mine which had produced little else 
than the disappointment of the fondest hopes. 2 


APPENDIX. 

Materials for the later story of the mine are both scat¬ 
tered and scanty; nor do they afford much that is of 
interest. In the years 1828 and 1829 Frederick Tudor of 
Boston, who later amassed a large fortune in the ice busi¬ 
ness, secured possession of the mine by the successive 

1 These data were secured through the courtesy of John C. Averill, Esq., Clerk of 
the Superior Court of New London County. A letter from Gurdon Saltonstall, Jr., 
to John Still Winthrop, 23 August, 1750, implies that in a higher court a decision 
had been rendered in favor of Madame Hunt. Mr. Robert C. Winthrop, Jr., is of 
the opinion that the case with Sparrow was compromised. 

2 “ The latest reference of any kind which I find among the Winthrop Papers in 
my possession is in the Inventory of John Still Winthrop, in 1776.” Robert C. Win¬ 
throp, Jr. The item is as follows: “ 3184 acres of land, by estimation, being what 
still remains unsold of the Lead Mine Tract, so-called, appraised at £955.4.” 




28 


purchase of seven pieces of land, aggregating over 127 
acres, for which about $1,200 was paid. For some years 
Mr. Tudor operated the mine as an adjunct to his manufac¬ 
turing of crucibles, one of his first enterprises. In 1833, 
Mr. Tudor transferred the lands and mine to the Ixion 
Black Lead Factory ; six years later, however, that com¬ 
pany (July 10, 1839) authorized its agent to sell the whole 
property back to Mr. Tudor, in whose hands it remained 
until his death. At times he operated it himself; at others 
he leased it, for some years to a man named Marcy, who 
worked it on shares. There are still living two men who 
tell interesting stories of work in the mine in the early 
sixties. The property remained a part of the Tudor estate 
until 1889, when it was bought for a small sum by Samuel 
L. Thompson of Sturbridge, who apparently valued it 
principally as woodland. October 23, 1893, the “Lead 
Mine Lot,” including the mine and seventy-seven acres of 
land was bought by Francis L. Chapin of Southbridge, and 
soon the Massachusetts Graphite Company was organized 
for the purpose of developing this ancient property. To 
this Company the tract of land containing the lead mine 
was deeded April 1, 1902. 

Hitherto the mining methods employed have been very 
primitive. The principal vein of graphite was inclined at 
an angle of about 70°. In following it an open cut was 
made some live hundred feet in length, from twenty to fifty 
feet in height, and about six feet wide. This deep cut 
has always been a source of danger; on the thirteenth of 
October, 1830, the fall of a great mass of the overhanging 
rock crushed to death two workmen and crippled for life a 
third. The mine is not far from the shore of Lead Mine 
Pond, and quite a little above it. An adit was therefore 
made, along which upon a wooden track were run cars, from 
which the refuse was dumped down the bank into the pond. 
The adit was not low enough to drain the mine into the 
pond, and much difficulty was experienced from the water 
which at times filled the cut. 


29 


The present company has run a tunnel some fifty 
yards into the hill; from this, within a few weeks of 
the present writing, it is proposed to begin the sinking 
of a shaft to a considerable depth, from which it will be 
convenient to drift in various directions. Prospecting has 
been undertaken upon other parts of the property, and one 
short open cut has been made in which graphite of remark¬ 
able excellence was encountered. 

Note. For letters containing much information of service in the preparation of 
this paper, the writer is indebted, in addition to the persons whose services have 
already been acknowledged, to Mr. Robert C. Winthrop, Jr., George A. Dary, Esq., 
and Edgar S. Hill, Esq., of Boston, and Mr. Frederick Tudor of Brookline. 

G. H. H. 








































































































































. 




























































